We recently passed the one-year anniversary of AWAY getting funded on Kickstarter! đ
To mark the occasion, we would like to take a moment to highlight some of the progress that we've made on AWAY over the last year. Thanks for following along with our development - we can't wait to show you more!
Sneaking & Pursuit
We wanted to add an extra layer of depth and strategy to the Sugar Glider's hunts, so we implemented two new mechanics â pursuit and sneaking. Pursuit allows you to lock onto your prey and dart after it in a fast-paced chase, while sneaking requires you to move slowly and carefully across grassy terrain before pouncing on your unsuspecting target.
These two new skills allow you to choose how you approach your prey based on the environments and situation, and we think this flexibility will add a little more spice to your encounters with the Sugar Glider's prey...
[previewyoutube="d1ohGnscRMc;full"]
New Camera System
Thanks to all the feedback we received over the past year, we completely redesigned the camera system in AWAY to make the transitions smoother between running, climbing, and gliding while capturing that stylized, documentary feeling.
For some background, there are three main types of cameras in AWAY:
General camera: The camera will move differently when the Sugar Glider is walking as opposed to when he's climbing or gliding.
Stylized camera: In some scenes the camera's position will move on the screen to get a more cinematic shot. For instance, you might see this in a dramatic top-down shot when the Sugar Glider fights a Scorpion.
Targeting camera: When you aim at other animals or objects, the camera will slide toward that object to indicate that the Sugar Glider is now focused on it.
Instead of the increasingly complex spaghetti code that was behind our original camera system, we were able to streamline our new system into two parts. One part handles the Sugar Glider's basic movements (walking, jumping, climbing, gliding), and the other part covers the more intricate camera movements in the game, such as the stylized camera and targeting mechanics mentioned above.
The result is a much smoother camera that can quickly adapt to AWAY's wild world!
[previewyoutube="A3Xue3YXlFk;full"]
Playable Animals
Finally, we've begun implementing the other playable animals in AWAY! This involves designing new mechanics, animations, and side missions for creatures of all shapes and sizes. We're really excited about this, and we're hoping that each new animal and insect can bring a unique perspective to the world of AWAY.
[previewyoutube="-F05M1DdRL0;full"] Of course we've also been working on a million other things for AWAY, but these are some of our favourite improvements from the past year. Thanks again for all your support, and if there's any part of development you're curious about please let us know in the comments!
~ the AWAY dev team
P.S. We've got an exciting reveal coming very soon. Stay tuned for more info...
Live Stream: AWAY at BitSummit Gaiden
Hey everyone,
We're excited to announce that AWAY is being featured at BitSummit Gaiden!
Tonight at 10:00 PM EDT we are going to show some never-before-seen gameplay followed by a Q&A with the devs.
Join us for the live stream, then ask us anything you want!
Hope to see you there :)
~ the AWAY Dev team
Behind the Scenes: Fire and Fog
Hey everyone, we're back!
Over the past few months we've received a lot of technical questions about AWAY's systems and environments, so today we decided to take you behind the scenes and show you how we designed a few key components of the game.
Traveler Above the Mists
Nature documentaries are a big source of inspiration for AWAY and we've done our best to capture in-game the same wonder that nature inspires in us. To achieve this, we put a high priority on realism and immersion in AWAY's environments. One technique that helps us accentuate and elevate the game's environments is deceptively simple but very effective: fog.
Fog helps us add a feeling of depth to the game; it separates ledges, highlights trees, and adds a sense of the unknown to a new landscape.
One way we achieved this effect is with volumetric fog, a technique that generates lots of particles where you want the fog to be and then calculates their density and how much light should shine through them at every point in that space. This creates the transparent, insubstantial look of fog, but also takes a lot of computing power. In order to maintain the atmosphere of AWAY on lower-performing hardware, we decided to turn to a more traditional method...
Instead of generating and performing calculations on a bunch of particles throughout the environment, we planned out where we wanted the fog to go and placed flat planes accordingly. These planes were then covered with a special fog material, which has both horizontal animation to capture the feeling of fog gliding across the ground and some noise to vary the transparency of the material. The result is the ethereal, flowing fog that exists in the game today (at much less computing cost than before!).
But the natural world isn't all sweeping vistas and scenic overlooks. There's real danger lurking in the wild...
Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot!
Designing natural disasters for AWAY is a unique challenge, and one of the most interesting ones to implement in-game is one you may have already seen: a sweeping forest fire. As you progress through the burning forest, the trees around you flicker and catch on fire until it seems like the entire world is burning around you. The secret behind this devastating blaze?
Big Orange Balls.
We give every tree that we want to catch on fire a transparent collision mesh, which shows up in the editor as an orange sphere. These collision meshes act as triggers for our fire; if one of the collision meshes overlaps with another, the corresponding tree will go up in flames.
We also programmed each tree's mesh to grow larger the longer the tree is on fire, so over time the trees closest to it also begin to burn as the mesh expands and collides with the neighbouring meshes.
This system allows us to simulate the spread of fire through a forest, as well as letting us time the spread of the flames. All we need to do is set one tree on fire at the perfect moment, and our fire system handles the rest!
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This sums up our first behind-the-scenes look at two systems we've implemented to make AWAY feel as immersive as possible (without melting any graphics cards!). Let us know if you found this interestingâwe have plenty more behind the scenes content that we'd be happy to share with you if you like it!
~ the AWAY dev team
New Playable Animals!
Hi everyone,
Last time you heard from us, we were announcing our Kickstarter campaign for AWAY. Today we would like to update you some of the exciting stuff that has happened since!
First things first: our Kickstarter campaign was a smash hit! We reached 226% of our initial funding goal, raising $135,789 from over 2,500 backers!
One of the central themes of the campaign was adding new playable animals to AWAY, so after several months of work we're excited to share more details with you.
Uncover AWAY's Secrets
As you may already know, AWAY follows the story of the Sugar Glider and his family on their journey to safer lands. Throughout your adventures, you will also embark on a variety of side-quests that offer deeper insight into the mysterious origins of your world.Â
This is where the new playable animals come in!
In many of these side-quests, you will have the chance to play as some of the other animals you encounter in the wild. Whether you're wandering through the forest as a deer, roaming across the beach as a crab, or buzzing through the air as a beetle, each animal's unique traits and attributes will help you uncover secrets hidden deep within the world of AWAY.
Four Bonus Animals
Thanks to the overwhelming support from our backers on Kickstarter, we also reached several of our stretch goals, adding four more playable animals to AWAY:
- The Grasshopper - The Stag Beetle - The Fox - The Bear
From tiny insects to large predators, each of these new animals brings their own unique perspective on the world, letting you experience AWAY on both the micro and macro scales.Â
What's Next?
We've been working hard these past few months to finalize AWAY's Alpha and review all the feedback from our Alpha testers. This feedback has helped us pinpoint the areas that need the most work and will serve as our guide as we work on fine-tuning the game's mechanics.
Optimization has also been a major focus for us latelyâwe want AWAY to look great on all computers, keeping the game's quality consistent even on medium-to-low end hardware. There is of course a lot of work to be done here, so keep an eye out for more details on this front!
Moving forward, we'll be updating you more regularly on AWAY's progress and going more in-depth on some of the work we're doing behind the scenes. As for us, given the current situation surrounding COVID-19 our team made the transition to remote work a couple weeks ago. Rest assured though, we're still hard at work on AWAY and are continuing development from the safety of our homes :)
Our best wishes to everyone, we hope you're all staying safe and happy indoors!
We decided to bring AWAY to Kickstarter so we could work together with you to finish the game and give it the level of quality and polish it deserves. The campaign will also help us add in an exciting new feature: the ability to play as other animals!
While the game tells the story of the Sugar Glider, we wanted to give you the opportunity to play as some of the other animals and insects you encounter in the wild. Each animal has its own unique traits and attributes, so you can experience the world of AWAY from a variety of new perspectives!
For more information, check out our page on Kickstarter. The campaign also features exclusive rewards such as beta access, exclusive skins, signed artbooks, and moreâyou can see a full list of the rewards on our page.
Your support means a lot to us, so if you're excited about the game please help us spread the word!
Thank you :)
~ the AWAY dev team
AWAY Hunting Prototype Released
Since the very beginning, our studio has been committed to working with our community to develop AWAY. Indeed, our first foray into community-driven development came through the early Sugar Glider Locomotion Prototype we shared with our players last summer, and the thousands of downloads & comments we received were crucial to the evolution of our game.
Fast-forward to today, and we've had the chance to improve and build upon the work we shared in our first prototype. As our game has progressed, we've been able to add new game mechanics that will be central to the adventure & survival aspects of AWAY, most notable of which is the Sugar Glider's hunting ability.
From attacking enemies on the ground to pouncing on unsuspecting prey from a distance, we were able to add a whole new layer of complexity to AWAY's gameplay. That's why we're really excited to be sharing our first Hunting Prototype with you guys, featuring these pesky little lizards!
Staying consistent with our community-driven development philosophy, we wanted to let everyone in on the development of our new hunting mechanics. This way, we can incorporate the feedback we receive along the way, ensuring that we're working in the right direction and building something that resonates with our players.
In this new prototype, the Sugar Glider's brand new hunting ability is on full display, and so are the rest of its newly-calibrated locomotion physics. Oh, and there's also a riddle hidden in a secret container room... let us know if you solve it! đ
